Angels

Well, yes. The discussion is tricky because in many ways they suck as female characters in the same way that most action men suck as male characters. Does the opportunity to be cartoony crappy characters represent a step forward? After decades of Magic Negroes, is it a step forward to have a black character how is an ass?

The angels will arrive next week from netflix, so I'll perhaps glean more insights, but here are just some quick responses.

I'm going to give them a pass on the comic relief sidekick mans-- it's pretty standard that an action hero doesn't get to be funny, and the angels actually get way more lightheartedness leeway than Stallone or Schwartzenoodle ever did.

I am more interested in the T&A aspect of the show. The original tv show was one of the pioneering jiggle shows, all about putting hot girls in skimpy clothes on the show (to the best of my recollection, the angels were never hired to travel to any place that required big bulky parkas). The movies seem intent on "reclaiming" that or something, but I've never quite grasped the idea of finding power in sexual objectification.

As for the other-- Drew Barrymore slept with Tom Green in real life. In the movies, she sleeps with the bad guys (which Jolie also does in Tomb Raider). Camron hooks up with Luke Wilson, and Liu has a LTR with whatshisname guy who played Joey on Friends.

Charlie's Angels

I am glad you agree with the thing. I feel like I have to continually prove to you how f-ed up things are, because I am not full of it, women really get the short end of the stick. (By the way, I am writing this blog solely to avoid working on my globalization paper, which is a freaking total mess). I do want to add Ghost World to our list, in case I forgot it, because it really fills the criteria. I also saw a funny article about the test that mentioned that everyone should just watch Gilmore Girls forever, because it shows that women can talk about a whole lot, which I am pretty sure is the truest thing ever.

Ok, as far as Charlie's Angels go, I think it really depends on your definition of strength. I feel like we have been moving around this topic a lot, but that the "weak women" article mighht get to it. I feel like the Charlie's Angels are "strong women" because they are able to be both violent and maintain their status as sexual objects. It's like the Angelina Jolie version of strength, and I have to say as a woman, that really has no appeal to me- it just feels empty. Do you think they are strong women? I mean, I just don't know. I don't think I would ever see their movies a gain, because I refuse to give my money to things that blow up, and I don't think they are particularly well-rounded characters, but at the same time, how many action characters are?

On the same note, they are directed by a disembodied sort of transcendent male figure and travel around with a kooky male sidekick, because it would just be too much for them to be acutally funny. I also remember them being charecterized by their sexual identities- like, Cameron Diaz was sort of innocent, Drew Barrymore was kind spontaneous and had sex with Tom Green (gross), and Lucy Liu kind of oscilated back and forth. I feel like that is tricky. I don't know, you want to give them some credit for being the heroes themselves, but if its a win for women it is only a partial win. That's my take on the whole thing. What do you think? And how much do you think to be considered "strong" does a woman have to take on stereotypically masculine charecteristics (a la Mulan, your favorite Disney movie)?

Oh, that is both interesting and sad. However I think we can still use our examples-- we are looking for good female characters in movies, which I propose is possible even if the movie is not good or even female friendly.

And I disagree with her list-- Aliens has two female characters who talk about things other than men. In fact, if you define "talking" loosely, it has three (Alien queen).

It does, oddly, bring up the next movies I was going to ask you about-- the Charlie's Angels flicks. They are obviously highly capable females with many areas of expertise, and yet the films are really interested in their boobs and butts (which they in fact use repeatedly as secret weapons against bad guys). So do these films make the cut or not?

Bechdel Test

Ok, this clearly seems to the point here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLF6sAAMb4s

This is so sad. Even some of the movies we have listed don't pass this test!

My Birthday Present Link

Okay, read the more weak women article. I think I pretty much agree with all of it. And although she didn't mention it, that essay pretty much lays out why I hated Mulan.

Animated Women

I'm not sure what you do with the fact that Betty started out as a dog. Her career is also a good example of how the Hays Office affected many features.

Her career also mirrors the trajectory of many newspaper stripes of the twenties and thirties. In the late twenties, single social strips were big for women-- Blondie (whose maiden name was Boopadoop) started out about the adventures of a cute flapper girl, and another feature called Boots and Her Buddies was about a young woman and her many beaus. These kind of strips, along with adventure strips, dominated the comics page, but by the mid/late thirties they had been replaced with domestic strips.

Blondie met Dagwood (originally an heir to the Bumstead fortune who risked being disinherited to be with her) and Boots settled down and got married. Captain Easy, an adventure strip in the Terry and the Pirates mode, switched focus to his sidekick Wash Tubbs and his home life with wife and kids.

Betty switches from adventures in foreign lands with adoring men to hanging around the house with that puppy.

I'm trying to think of other women in early animation, but of course there's not much. Even after Disney had his first feature hit with a female lead, he didn't use a woman lead character again for...what, six? more films.

Happy Birthday Paggy!

Also, a special birthday gift for you Paggy-

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2008/08/18/why-strong-female-characters-are-bad-for-women/

Yeah, I'm back!

Ok, so obviously I have really let the blog die, and I am sorry about that, but I feel like I should post, so I am posting.

I am taking animation this quarter, and it is amazing to me just how connected to gender it is. This whole Pygmalion fantasy, or creating a living being without natural reproduction certainly complicates women's connections to the media.

On the other hand, there are some sickly amazing female animated characters! First and foremost, I have to point out how amazing Betty Boop is- I am currently obsessed with her, especially the Cab Calloway cartoons. I know we talked about this like a month ago, but I think I have watched the Snow White cartoon like 50 times since then.

Also, have you ever seen the Quay bros films? Streets of Crocodiles came out the year I was born, but I had never heard about them until this class. This animation really rides a lot of gender lines, but the longer I look at them, the more I can see that there is gendered stuff going on there. On the other hand, they have like no interiority, so I am not sure we can grant them any sort of really sophisticated status for our purposes.

Ok, that is about all I have seen lately, unless you want to hear my musings on Glee or Housewives of New Jersey, or hear about how much I hate Lost. Most of my viewing is television, which you no longer watch at all, so I feel like we have a problem meeting in the middle. Look at me! I posted! Be impressed!